Our 1st Thanksgiving in Korea

We had our very first Thanksgiving here in Korea last night. Instead of celebrating on Thursday we decided to invite our English class over on Tuesday for a good ole' fashioned American celebration. I cooked and cleaned all day long!!!!!!!!!!!! We had so much fun!!! Everyone got to our house by 7. The food was hot and my tummy was nervous. It's a lot when you are representing Thanksgiving to a group of people. I so wanted everything to go perfectly. It turned out better then I even hoped for!!
Here is Kareem explaining what some of the foods are. The green bean casserole was a big hit as were the yams..you know the kind....you add a ton of butter and slather on the brown sugar topped with marshmallows! What's not to love!!! Oh, let me tell you what we had....I made a turkey and thank God for my mom cause when I told her the size of the bird she made me go out and buy a ham...there was nothing left of either by the end of the night! We also had green bean casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravey, sweet potatoes, salad and stuffing. At the end I brought out the pumpkin pie...the sweet potato didn't set until this morning so I had some of that for breakfast!! heehee




The Captain and Clara...she's trying to hide. heehee










See the two men in uniform?? The one on the right is Jason. The one on the left is his boss, a Capt. The Captain brought us a gift of Korean liquor. It's called Lee Gang Ju. Translated it means Korean Folk Liquor. The correct way to pour is for you to hold your small glass (it must be a small glass) in both hands while someone else pours for you. You do not pour for yourself. It tasted like cinnamon and boy did it burn on the way down!! The bottle it came in is just beautiful. I'm going to keep it!



Here is another gift we received. It is traditional Korean rice cakes. Look how pretty everything is! There are 8 of these small packages in all. Michael I sure do wish you would've been there last night. You would've had so much fun!









Here is Lauren and Sonja getting their grub on!!
















Jason!












Our very distinguished Captain!











This was a very special part of the night. The Captains brother drew this picture. There is a better picture of it next. But anyway, his brother drew this and the Capt. presented it to Kareem. It was just lovely!












Here is a better picture. Now his brother drew this!!
















Tom!















This is another! present that we got last night. It is just the most gorgeous basket of flowers I've ever seen!









These are traditional Korean masks. Another present that we got last night. The first mask is the Yangban. The second is called the Maid and the third is the Sonbi.












Here is what was left at the end of the night. A good time was had by all and this is going to go down in history as the best Thanksgiving I've ever had. These people have become family in such a short amount of time. What a blessing it is to come to another country and be embraced by the people who live in it. I know that we are teaching them English on Tuesday nights but they are teaching us so much as well. The Korean people are gentle souls who embrace life with gusto. I am having a ball here and I know these next two years are going to go by much to fast. Thank you to our Korean guests for making last night a wonderful memory I will carry in my heart forever!!